Aerial vehicles are unmanned flying devices whose movements can be remotely controlled. Examples of aerial vehicles include tri-copters, quad-copters, multi-rotor flying crafts. An aerial vehicle is generally equipped with one or more motors. For example, T-Motor™ is excellent motors that are commercially available and can be used to build a multi-rotor craft. The motors drive one or more propellers and may be powered by batteries or combustion engines. Additionally, an aerial vehicle may be configured with a computer chip and may have antennas installed for communicating with a controlling device.
Aerial vehicles can be used for different purposes, for example, aerial photography or merchandise delivery. An aerial vehicle has limited load capacity and can only carry a limited amount of payloads. Consequently, the number of batteries or the amount of combustion fuel an aerial vehicle can carry is limited, which in turn limits the aerial vehicle's flight time. During a mission, an aerial vehicle may be required to stop at a home station for refueling or recharging.
Further during an aerial data collection mission, an aerial vehicle can generate a large amount of data. For example, a digital camera on the aerial vehicle collects image data or video data. The aerial vehicle can transmit the generated data to a controlling device via wireless communication. Alternatively, the aerial vehicle can return to the controlling device for data transfer, which may be faster than if the data is transferred wirelessly.
As more and more aerial vehicles are deployed for commercial and military missions, persistent and accurate mission control becomes important for ensuring the successful completion of a critical mission. The present application discloses methods and apparatus that can be used for persistent deployment of aerial vehicles.